Koinonia Congregation is an actual congregation meeting in online space – a virtual reality world de- rived from the revolutionary software program called Second Life, which allows users to socialize and use voice and text chat. They hadn’t traveled from those places they were still at home in all those places, but making church online – worshipping, studying, praying, crying and laughing together from all corners of the globe. When it came time for the passing of the peace, people greeted one another from Germany, England, California, Mississippi, Georgia, and Toronto. This group has been worshipping together for two years, and the joy was palpable. They chatted quietly about their lovely dresses and crisp Sunday suits while the music welcoming the Risen Lord floated lightly overhead.
So it is with the new metropolis of the internet: churches are springing up every day online, and I am one of the ministers.Īt our church this past Easter morning, for instance, folks wandered in, picked up their bulletins and settled into their seats. You’d also expect to find houses of worship where the new town’s citizens can connect with God and with each other. Imagine a new town emerging on the outskirts of your city, a planned village filled with all manner of retail, rolling golf courses, night clubs, and civic arrangements necessary to organizing a small city. I also see it in practice as the pastor of an online church, Koinonia Congregational Church of Second Life.
I see it in practice at The Beatitudes Society. Community is the common thread to all my work. How does a seminary graduate end up as an online Circuit Rider? Answer: I genuinely believe in online community. I enlist online resources that help clergy learn and act on pressing social issues and give them online places to meet and talk with other progressive faith leaders. 1 My tools are the currency of the online world – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Second Life. I am the Circuit Rider for The Beatitudes Society, but my tools are quite different than the well-worn saddle and leather-bound Bibles of my forebears.
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